Family Pictures: Christmas Card 2016 Edition

A few weeks ago I convinced a friend to take our family pictures for our Christmas cards this year. In exchange for her photography services I fed her and her husband dinner! It was a pretty sweet deal. I mean I make dinner every night anyways so what's two extra mouths to feed? Plus she (naively) thought it would be fun...hahahahahahaha! Weeks later and I'm still laughing about that. So on a hot Friday afternoon we all got dressed in our Christmas attire and attempted to look winter-y while sweating profusely in the Texas heat and humidity. It was loads of fun:)

 Ok so there were some less than pleasant moments. But honestly overall it went very well. And its largely due to this girl...

She loves my kids and is so incredibly patient with them...and ME! Pictures always stress me out and I turn into a slightly crazy person. But not so much this year. Having a friend there definitely helped. Thanks friend:) And now onto all the great moments she captured for us.

And my FAVORITE family picture that made it onto the card this year...

And these next individual pictures of the kids I absolutely LOVE. They capture each child so well right now.

But THE BEST picture of the afternoon came when we attempted to get a picture of the four kids together. Here is the backstory: Hannah is notoriously our least cooperative child for picture taking (and life in general?!?). So when she suggested I hold her during pictures I immediately agreed! If it meant she would cooperate I would do it. And I did. I held her in every single family picture we took that afternoon (see above). I held her even though she is 4 years old and quite heavy and I was sweating profusely. I held her in my 6 inch wedges and smiled. And she smiled too! It was all going beautifully...until I set her down for a sibling picture....

And then she was MAD! And not just a little bit mad. Like really, really mad. Mad enough to not cooperate for every single sibling picture we took.

And even though that is not at all how I imagined the sibling picture turning out I kinda love it too! Its real life. So we embraced it and included this picture/greeting combo on our card this year:

And tonight while I was reading my kids' a bedtime story and stumbled upon the following description of family pictures I laughed out loud and then took a picture of the book to send to my friend/photographer.

Its as if the author was at MY FAMILY PICTURE SESSION THIS YEAR. So true. So funny. And yet I make my kids do it every year.

Christmas Scones: an update.

Four years ago I decided I needed to start a Christmas tradition for our family. Given our somewhat transient lifestyle (in the last four years we've lived in three different houses in three different states!) I knew it needed to be simple and travel-able. Ok that's not really a word. What I mean is that I needed to be able to take this tradition with us no matter where we are on Christmas day. Our life just does not allow us to go to/be at the same place year after year. So I needed something I could take with us. Because ultimately I wanted my children to have a tradition that they someday could look back upon fondly. To be able to say "this is what my family did for Christmas". So what is this tradition I started? SCONES. Cinnamon chip scones. The scones are simple and delicious. They were four years ago and they still are today. They need no update.

This is more of an update on the tradition itself.

Earlier this week Isaiah was working on his schoolwork at the table while I was making dinner (which is pretty much how every week night evening goes around here) when he asked me to proof read his writing. I started reading the work looking for any grammatical errors when I had to stop because I had tears in my eyes....

ITS WORKING! We have a tradition. A tradition my child recognizes and enjoys!!!!! And someday he's going to want to come "home" as an adult for Christmas morning scones. I just know it.

And it looks like we may have accidentally started a new tradition this year. 

Sleeping under the Christmas tree! It started the night we set up the tree. Just for fun. But then it was so simple (and magical) that we've continued every night since. The kids make a little bed near the tree. Joe or I read them a Christmas-y story. And then we sit by the fire until they fall asleep (and longer). 

Deck the Halls 2016 Version

Four Christmases ago we started taking pictures of our Christmas tree decorating process. These (hundreds) of pictures then magically become a video. A very cute video in my biased opinion. Oh and it isn't really magic. Joe uses a program on his computer to turn the pictures into a video but it is WAY above my skill set so it seems magical to me:) While it is somewhat of a pain to set up the camera, continually walk over to the camera to push the trigger (its on a timer to take a series of 10 pictures) and keep the children from bumping/moving/touching the camera...its totally worth it! I love each and every video we have created. They contain so many wonderful memories. And this year is no different.  I LOVE IT!! And as a bonus it didn't feel that stressful to be setting up the tree AND taking pictures. We are finally getting the hang of it, I think. Maybe next year I will even get the top of the tree in the video...maybe. No guarantees!

Just for fun here are the previous years videos:

2013 (This was our last Christmas in our med school house in Illinois. It was such a good little house. And oh my goodness Hannah was SO LITTLE!)

2014 (This was in Minnesota at my parents' house while we lived with them for Joe's last year of med school. All I can see when I watch this video is my BELLY.)

2015  (Sorry no video to share. The pictures were taken, but the video was never created. What can I say? Intern year. It was terrible. A lot of things didn't happen last year. We were just surviving a year ago.)

Seven Quick Takes

1. We went to see Santa. Actually we went to a (free!) Christmas festival. Santa was there. And despite the fact that none of my kids believe in Santa they ALL wanted to go see him. 

It warmed my heart. And made me wish I had made Isaiah change into a less doofy looking outfit. 

2. Isaiah had his school performance last week. Joe was working. So I took the kids by myself. Again. For the fifth year in a row. Which isn't that terrible. I just get tired of being the solo parent at times. It makes me sad that Joe misses so much of his family while helping other people's families. 

But I really can't complain. I'm grateful that I get to see all the performances. Because oh my goodness there is something so cute about seeing your kid up on stage singing!!

3. The performance got me thinking. When Joe started medical school Isaiah was starting preschool. When Joe finishes residency Isaiah will be starting middle school. How is that even possible?!?

4. Since I'm on an Isaiah kick I'll add this picture here:

Isaiah wrote this on my bathroom mirror last week. And I like it so much I can't erase it. I just keep cleaning around it. 

5. Hannah has started making "announcements". Basically anytime she wants to be heard over the chaos that is our house she makes an announcement. And her favorite words to include are gorgeous and gisgusting (disgusting). She finds a million ways to use those words each day. And it's adorable. 

6. Speaking of announcements, Charlotte informed me (in a very shocked tone) that some people live in the same house for FIVE YEARS! I think I knocked the socks right off her when I told her some people live in the same house for fifty years. Figuratively speaking of course because it is still too warm for socks here. 

7. I went to a ladies Christmas tea this morning at church. Don't I sound so old and grown up?! Really I just ate cookies and drank water and held a newborn. It was lovely. And then I came home to this sight....

It's Christmas decorating time!!!! Oh and apparently it must be time for socks. Joe informed me the kids were complaining of being too cold while getting the tree this morning. It was a frigid 68 degrees out. We are turning into a bunch of wimps. 

Linking up HERE

Cousin Reunion 2016

Twenty four hours after hosting Friendsgiving my parents arrived in Texas. More specifically on my doorstep. And we got to work planning and preparing for my extended family to arrive. Because this was my year to host my family's ANNUAL COUSIN REUNION!!! And even though I live at the end of the earth (I kid, I kid...) we had a good turn out. In addition to my parents I had three aunts, two uncles, and four cousins (plus spouses and kids) attend the reunion. There were 31 people and 1 dog.  These people came from all over. Mexico City, Montana, Minnesota and Wisconsin. It was no easy feat for them to travel to my house so I wanted to make sure it was worth their effort. 

A little cousin reunion history. They started back in 2004. My eldest cousin (on my mom's side of the family) planned the first one. And it has been passed down cousin by cousin ever since. Each cousin that plans the reunion gets to choose the date and location. Traditionally they are in the summer. However summer here is borderline miserable so we opted for fall. And thankfully it felt nice and summer like! We took full advantage of the weather and spent most our time outside...

Thanksgiving day we ate a large breakfast, stuck the turkeys in the oven and then we headed to the beach. Where we played for nearly five hours!

Boogie Boarding on November 24th!

And then we headed back to my house to enjoy our traditional Thanksgiving meal. Thankfully we had had the foresight to prepare all the side dishes the night before so all we had to to do was stick them in the oven when we got back from the beach, shower off all the salt and sand and ENJOY!  (Minus one little *mishap where one of the turkeys tried to slip off the counter our plan worked wonderfully)

We ate almost all of our meals outdoors, including Thanksgiving dinner!

White Elephant gifts. Some people were happy with their gifts and some were NOT.

It was a FABULOUS week! I absolutely loved having family in town and I felt so honored that they would travel so far to see ME....well and the beach:) And I really couldn't have pulled off the reunion without them. (Especially because Joe was working nights and sleeping during the day...at another resident's apartment.) Sure I planned the meals, bought the groceries and played tour guide. But they were the workers. I swear I never cooked a single meal all week. Every single time it was time for a meal I had multiple volunteers to cook. It was a real team effort! I couldn't ask for a better family. I mean we somehow managed to cram 14 children and 6 adults in my house with different nap and bedtime schedules and HAVE FUN! I'd call that a success.


*When that turkey tried to slip off the counter a bunch of the drippings splashed onto the kitchen floor. Instead of dealing with it immediately I took a rag towel and threw it over top of the spill. That towel remained on the floor for most of the evening. Hours later as we were cleaning up Joe asked about the towel (he was asleep at the time of the incident). When he lifted up the towel he discovered there was turkey parts under it...the neck and heart! And much to my shock, my aunt (who shall remain nameless) picked up the heart and ATE IT!!!! Best Thanksgiving moment ever. Boogie boarding was a close second.